UMBC Art Student Creates “Pathway to the Future” Mural

UMBC Art Student Creates “Pathway to the Future” Mural for New Potomac bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park Facility

Potomac Photonics’ new location at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology park is giving us great opportunities for collaboration with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. While we are already involved in science and engineering projects, we recently had a wonderful opportunity to work with a student artist.

Susan Lynch, who is the Development Officer for the UMBC Office of Institutional Advancement, helps connect the university; students; faculty and staff with alumni, and has been instrumental in building a strong partnership between Potomac and the UMBC community. Knowing that Ganna Vikhylayeva, an UMBC art student had created a mural last year for the UMBC Biology Building, and that Potomac was looking to have a mural painted in its new space, she was able to bring Potomac and Ganna together.

“Potomac makes things that one can’t even dream about,” says Ganna. “They are looking into the future, and changing the world with their innovative work. So I wanted to show that Potomac is giving future possibilities to a new generation with the kids in the painting. I also wanted to show that they are standing on the Pathway to the Future so the floor is something out of SciFi leading to new worlds.

The mural also shows examples of the micro parts that Potomac creates through laser micromachining, micro CNC machining, micro 3D Printing, and other digital fabrication technologies. Many of these pieces are actually aesthetically beautiful, even if they are industrial or medical products. Finally, the UMBC mascot was added to signify the strong bond that Potomac has with UMBC.

UMBC student and artist Ganna Vikhlyayeva

Ganna is from the Ukraine and hopes to complete her undergraduate degree in Animation/Interactive Media in Spring of 2015. She has a particular interest in children and paints murals for residential projects such as this one.

We’re thrilled to be able to work with diverse aspects of UMBC and plan to continue to create opportunities for a wide variety of students in our facility.